RAND Health: Analyzing the core issues in health care reform
For forty years, RAND analysts have been providing objective research on many of the topics now at the heart of the health reform debate.
Research Archive »What's New in RAND Health Research
Homelessness among children
In a classroom of twenty-eight 5th-grade students, two will have been homeless at some point in their lives and experience emotional, behavioral, and developmental problems as a result.
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More research on maternal and adolescent health
Integrating treatment for substance abuse and mental health disorders
Clients, counselors, and administrators view a cognitive behavioral treatment for co-occurring disorders as useful and acceptable
Associations between bullying victimization and substance use in early adolescence
A study that assessed association between victimization from mental and physical bullying and use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and inhalants among middle school students found that youths who experienced each type of bullying separately or in combination were more likely to report use of each substance within the following year.
Science provides a starting place for health care reform
Several key studies suggest how physicians can change the health care system in ways that reflect both the needs of individual patients and population-based health outcomes
Using dual-risk populations for studying HIV transmission
A cooperative research program involving American and Russian researchers examining the role of drug use in the sexual transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) used a dual high-risk group sampling approach that included both drug users and men who have sex with both men and women and explored the pros and cons of this approach.
Read abstractMore research on HIV, STDs, and sexual behavior
Using health information technology-related performance measures and tools to improve care for chronic disease
Improving the quality of chronic care through clinical performance measurement, data aggregation, and reporting will require expanded use of clinical performance measures for both internal quality improvement and pay-for-performance; integrating electronic health records (EHRs) or electronic-based registries into more physician offices; more accurate measurement and documentation of diagnoses and care procedures; EHR products that make it easier to capture certain types of information; and simplified, standardized processes for performance data extraction and exporting.
Rescoring the NIH chronic prostatitis symptom index
The National Institutes of Health-chronic prostatitis symptom index (NIH-CPSI) is a commonly used 13-item questionnaire for assessing symptom severity in men with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome. A team of researchers who rescored it to assign equal weights to each item found that the rescored questionnaire provides better face validity but requires additional calculation and yields only marginal improvements in performance over the standard version.
Later would have been better
Teens overwhelmingly wish they had waited to have sex for the first time. Male teens' exposure to sexual content on TV may be a main cause for their regret.
Read abstractMore research on HIV, STDs, and sexual behavior
Are electronic health records ready for genomic medicine?
Electronic health records could help to improve delivery of personalized health care; however, requirements are needed to standardize record data elements and functions.
RAND Health Congressional newsletter
The June Health Congressional newsletter highlights RAND resources on health care reform and profiles of recent RAND research on health reform topics.
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